Thus, the present invention relates to the electronic distribution of large data files such as television programs, newspapers, computer games, other multimedia communications, text files and so on, to receiver-equipped audiences, and in particular to audiences located in approximately identifiable geographic areas. The invention also relates to the electronic distribution of files and content to mobile users especially when they are away from their home or office.
The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together of disclosures, that were not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but which were provided by the invention. Some such contributions of the invention may be specifically pointed out below, whereas other such contributions of the invention will be apparent from their context.
The use of electronic communication is increasing dramatically. Many homes in the United States have perhaps tens of devices capable of receiving or displaying electronic communications or audibilizing such communications. Such homes may have multiple television receivers, multiple computers connected or connectable with the Internet, as well as multiple telephone units, radio telephone units and multiple radios. Nevertheless, there is constant need to develop improved means for communicating information such as news, entertainment and personal items to audiences. There is a particular need to provide better means of communicating such content of interest to mobile users who may be traveling or located away from their home or office where their primary receiving equipment is located.
Various proposal have been made for distribution of multimedia data via the Internet. For example, Leighton et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,703 (“Leighton”) discloses a system of management of content delivery on the Internet using multiple servers to provide a fault tolerant infrastructure (column 2, lines 26–31).
Also, Krebs U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,320 (“Krebs”) discloses a video distribution system intended to solve congestion problems in transmitting video across heterogenous networks comprising telephone, wireless, satellite, etc. (column 1, lines 5–7) by employing a managing network provider. The managing network provider schedules each video request and sets up control points to each receiver that operate on a per transmission basis (claim 1). However these systems are dependent upon the user having access to the Internet for which most people require the inconvenience of land lines. There presently exists no efficient method for wireless access to the Internet which is suitable for distribution of large files, such as multimedia, to a large number of users.